...that the people you encounter whose very existence challenges your worldview are an opportunity to expand rather than contract your empathy and common understanding.

...that anticipating something wonderful is often more fun than the wonderful thing. If the two match up, that’s the juice, gang.

...that if anyone in the country is guilty of eating dogs and cats they all live in the Appalachians.

...that, after a summer broiling in a giant outdoor venue for hours a day, the tease of jacket weather is as sexy as the collarbone revealed with an off-the-shoulder dress.

...that treating people the way you’d want to be treated is really not that difficult.

...that the emphasis on class and labor and muting of identity and social justice is the pivot required for the Left to win elections moving forward.

...that like beer and cheese, a person’s ‘sell by’ date is a fiction, an illusion designed to prioritize the new over the seasoned, youth over experience.

..that anyone not in a dark alley or the home of a known serial killer who claims the feel unsafe probably are best off becoming agoraphobic and staying inside.

...that the need to be liked (including the hormonally charged desire for ‘followers’) makes you the eighth grade boy at the middle school dance in line to impress the one girl who just got a training bra.

...that anyone who espouses the idea that "the end justifies the means" has forgotten that this same philosophy was used to support everything from slavery to the Holocaust to the IMF practicing "shock doctrine" economic devastation. The "means" defines the character of the end, not the other way around.

...that the absence of trust in basic societal authority is a tear in the fabric of society which makes it more essential that those in authority reach for a place of unimpeachability and transparency. Trust is lost by those with the power to abuse the contract.

...that, in terms of portability, nutrition, and flavor a boiled egg is perhaps the perfect breakfast item.

...that recognizing one’s Achilles heel is more about finding a compilation of weaknesses that manifest together than one tendon.

...that the moment a character uses a lightsaber to give herself a haircut was the pivot from cultural icon to Obi-Wan Fonzi jumping a tauntaun on a speeder bike.

...that I may need to date just so I can avoid the routine description of a serial killer ‘unsub’ on Criminal Minds—white male, lives alone, changes jobs frequently, antisocial. Eek.

...that a more effective approach to shame is mockery.

...that a few bad apples only spoil the barrel if you let them. Most of those apples are pretty good and tasty.

...that the secret to a successful day is the flexibility to pivot when things go sideways.

...that treating people with the same respect you would like for yourself isn’t difficult as long as you don’t expect the same treatment in return.